


My Fight

by Armbar_Nation



Series: Seth Rollins/Ronda Rousey Series [4]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7054090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Armbar_Nation/pseuds/Armbar_Nation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In May 2016, seven months after she left WWE, Ronda Rousey has been invited onto Steve Austin's podcast to tell the story of her time with WWE, including her failed relationship with Seth Rollins and her acrimonious departure from the company after working for them for less than a year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_**May 2016** _

Steve Austin was not a man who was known for being nervous. Steve Austin was Stone Cold. Steve Austin was cocky, arrogant and confident, some would even say to a fault, but those folks were probably pansies. Steve had interviewed everyone from The Queen Bitch Dixie Carter to the Granddaddy of Wrestling itself, Vince McMahon, and never once did he feel anything before a podcast but confidence in himself to knock the interview out of the park.

On this evening however, Steve felt something close to nervousness. The uneasy feeling was not caused by the actual prospect of interviewing his guest, far from it. Actually, he expected the conversation to flow quite well. The reason that Steve was uneasy was that he had gotten the interview that so many people had wanted. It was the interview that every wrestling podcast out there had been desperate to get. It was the interview that literally millions of people around the world had been waiting seven months to hear. This was, without a shadow of doubt, going to be Steve's biggest podcast ever, and for that reason it was being streamed live on Youtube.

Steve was brought out of his thoughts by one of the crew members bringing two glasses of water to the table, setting one in front of Steve and the other in front of the chair opposite him, which was currently empty. At that moment, Steve's guest walked into the studio. It was almost time to get underway.

* * *

Following the podcast's short intro sequence, Steve Austin was shown in close up, wearing a black T-shirt with a large white skull logo which had red eyes inside of it. "Welcome, everyone, to the Stone Cold Podcast Live!" Steve smiled. "This week's guest is someone I've definitely been looking forward to talking with. Just like you guys, I'm very keen to hear her side of the story on several big topics, and rest assured, we're going to stay live tonight until we've covered all of them. This ain't going to be no bullshit interview where you come away going. 'Why didn't he ask that fucking question, damn it.'"

Steve smiled once more as he made an introduction. "This week's guest is former WWE Divas champion, the toughest woman on the planet, Ronda Rousey!" The camera shot panned out to now include both people who were sitting at the table. "Ronda, welcome."

"Thanks, Steve. I appreciate you inviting me to come on," Ronda smiled back. She was wearing a light grey muscle tee with her now instantly recognisable logo on the front, in black. The logo was essentially just the letters RR, but the design was very elaborate and well done. "I see you got your wristband," Ronda giggled, gesturing at Steve's right arm which sat on the table top.

"You're shitting me, right?" Steve laughed, lifting his right arm slightly. "If I tried to do this interview without getting me one of these, I'd probably never hear the last of it. While we're talking about it, why don't you show us the original?"

"Sure," Ronda agreed easily, holding up her right wrist so that the camera could zoom in the black wristband. It was made from some kind of fabric rather than plastic, and looked to be of high quality. Ronda's RR logo was printed onto the material in gold, along with the motto _Win and lose together_.

"How many of those things have you sold now?" Steve asked as Ronda showed the wristband to the camera.

"Honestly? I really have no idea," Ronda admitted. "I'd been wearing this one for a while, but when I left WWE and decided to try selling them, I never expected that they'd take off like they did. I think it started off as a way for WWE's fans to show support for me after what happened, and it took off from there. We had a serious backlog with not being able to make them fast enough at one point, so I had to get Adidas to step in and take over production for us." Ronda rolled her wrist over to reveal that her name was personalised on the underarm side of the wristband. "A couple of celebrities got pictured wearing them, and that made them take off even more as the thing that everyone wanted. I guess it's the whole win and lose together thing. It's transcended wrestling at this point. Then, for some reason, WWE tried to stop people getting in with them at Raw that one time, and we know how that blew up in their faces. You might have thought they'd have learned, huh?"

The camera zoomed back out to the regular shot of Ronda and Steve again as Steve spoke. "If you look at it from WWE's point of view, though, it didn't look good that every time there was a Divas match everyone in the crowd was standing there holding your wristbands up and chanting your name. It got fuckin' crazy."

"Whose fault was that?" Ronda shrugged, clearly implying that WWE had only themselves to blame for what she was referring too.

"I guess we'll find out later, when we come to it," Steve said a little awkwardly, trying to steer the subject back to where he had really wanted to begin the show from. "Because of the time we've got available, we're only going to talk about your time with WWE tonight, without touching on your success at the Olympics or any of that stuff. You first started out as a referee. How did that come about, because it seems strange for someone with your background and in the shape that you're in to be a referee rather than a wrestler?"

It was a, uh, a difficult time for me," Ronda began, her voice sounding a little distant as she looked down at the table top for a moment. "I'd injured myself. Specifically, I'd broken my neck when I fell off a horse. You know how traumatic an injury like that can be, Steve, but those who haven't experienced something like it can't really imagine it. It was a living hell."

Ronda paused to take a deep breath and a sip of water, while Steve sympathetically nodded his agreement with what she had just said. The brief pause seemed to help Ronda to recompose herself, and she continued speaking with more confidence. "By the time I joined WWE, I was fine physically, but mentally I was struggling. I was afraid to take any kind of bump on my neck. I'd been a referee in a couple different indie companies over a period of months, and then I heard that WWE were looking to hire a female referee. I applied, and they invited me down to Florida to try out. Hunter was down there at the time, and he stopped by to watch us for a while. I think he was sold on me then and there to be honest. I could tell that he was asking questions about me while I was in the ring. Sure enough, I got the call a few days later. I expected to be put on NXT or something, because I honestly suspected that WWE were treating the whole thing as a marketing ploy or a publicity stunt more than anything else, but I was told to show up for Raw."

"They put you on Raw before you'd even refereed a match for them?" Steve asked, raising his eyebrows. The haste with which Ronda had been pushed onto the big stage surprised him.

"Yeah. Hunter was good about it. To be fair, Hunter was always good to me. That never changed, even with what happened in the end. I'd like to make that clear. When I got to Raw that first afternoon, he made sure that I knew that he was there if I needed anything, and he did a good job of making me feel like I belonged there. Aside from the thing with my neck, I've never been someone to lack confidence anyway, so I was just keen to get started."

Steve gave a knowing smile. This time Ronda's answer definitely hadn't surprised him. "I remember watching that Raw, and I remember thinking that you looked good in the ring. I mean, sometimes people underestimate the role that the referee has to play in a wrestling match, but I could see that you were good. You had a great count, I remember that. I know what it's like backstage though, there must have been people who gave you shit because they didn't like working with a woman?"

Ronda laughed dryly at the memory. "Yeah, it did happen. Some of the guys would make little comments to let me know how they felt without actually saying it, but I knew the time would come when someone would try and fuck me around in the ring. Sure enough, Cody Rhodes decided to be that guy. I think it was on a Smackdown. It was definitely on either Smackdown or Raw, I know that. He was a dick the entire match, ignoring my counts and all that bullshit, just trying to make me look stupid and crap at my job, basically."

"You must have been pissed off," Steve said, stating the obvious rather than asking a question. "What happened when you got in the back?"

"Pissed off? I was fucking livid," Ronda scowled, her face transforming into arguably her most famous expression. "I called him on his bullshit in front of a bunch of guys in a hallway, but rather than apologising, he carried on. I remember him calling me sugar tits. I was ready to cripple the fucking guy and I told him to come at me, but then Hunter showed up and stepped in. Actually, after Hunter made everyone leave us be, that was when I told him that if possible I would like to get into wrestling rather than refereeing. I was with Seth Rollins by that point, and he'd helped me a lot with dealing with my mental problem with my neck. Things started to happen really quickly from there."

This was the kind of interview that Steve liked the most. His contribution was minimal, and only served to steer the conversation along slightly, while Ronda said what she had to say. He knew that the people who were watching were doing so largely to see and hear from Ronda rather than himself, so that was what needed to happen as much as possible. "You weren't a referee for all that long, as I remember it, so this thing with Cody couldn't have been long after you joined WWE, yet you just said you and Seth Rollins were already together by that point? Things must really have developed quickly with the two of you as well?"

"They really did," Ronda nodded, before sipping from her glass of water again. "Seth and I just clicked. So much so that we went for dinner after that first Raw show that I worked. Seth's not one to waste time when he sets his eyes on a woman," she added a little coldly, clearly referring to events which had happened much later and were now public knowledge. "Anyway, at that point things were great between us. I felt a lot better about my neck, but I still wasn't confident in it by a long shot. Seth offered to start me off on my training with taking basic bumps and all of that stuff, and Hunter agreed to give him the time off from house shows to do it. As with anything in life, I went at it hard and gave it fucking everything. The guys they've got down in Orlando are really good at what they do, that's for sure, and the facilities are second to none. My neck didn't give me any problems, and I finally managed to get it out of my head and feel confident in the ring."

Steve got a cue from the show's producer, telling him that the introductory part of the show was done, and that he needed to go to a brief commercial break before continuing with the next subject. "By this point, Wrestlemania Thirty One was coming up, which was where you ended up making your return. We'll go into that in just a couple of minutes when we come back."

 


	2. Chapter 2

After a short commercial break, Steve and Ronda reappeared on the screen. Steve had just been counted down by the producer, and was keen to get right back to the conversation. In his opinion, the interview had gone well so far. Unlike some guests, Ronda didn't need much prodding for answers, which made the process a lot easier.

"Welcome back to the Stone Cold Podcast Live," he smiled into the camera. "Now, Ronda, before that short break, we were about to get into how you made your return at Wrestlemania Thirty One. You actually made the count which ended the main event, with Seth Rollins winning the title after cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and pinning Roman Reigns. When did you find out about that was going to happen? I know those kind of decisions can be made quite late at times."

"My involvement was added quite late," Ronda began, shifting on her chair to get comfortable for the next part of the show. "I think it was the Thursday afternoon that Hunter called me and told me. I was really hyped about it, as I'm sure you can imagine. As for Seth cashing in, that was decided quite a way in advance. Roman had won the Rumble, but the fans had jumped all over it. I think they were booing the creative rather than actually booing Roman. I think they thought WWE was forcing him on them too quickly or something. One of the best things about WWE, in my opinion, is that the fans always get to make their opinions known. It did hurt Roman though, and it was that which actually helped us to become close friends. We're still close now actually, we chat often on the phone. Anyway, you asked about Wrestlemania. When Seth went out there with the briefcase, the crowd was insane. I'd never heard anything like it in my life, not in person. Then I had to run out there to referee the end of the match, and the fans went wild for me too. I don't need to tell you, Steve, but there's no other feeling quite like hearing an arena full of people go wild for you like that. The way that ending to the main event brought Wrestlemania to a close worked really well, and even though Seth was still supposed to be a heel, everyone seemed to love his cash in."

Steve nodded his agreement as he remembered the scenes that Ronda was describing. "Did you know at that point that you would be debuting on Raw the next night? I assume you did?"

"Yeah, I knew," Ronda confirmed, smiling broadly. "And I knew that they were going to give me the Divas title, too, which was a huge surprise and a huge honour. I got to wrestle my first match against my friend Nikki Bella, and she was great about putting me over. It was actually Nikki who suggested that I win quickly against her. Hunter wanted it to go for a few minutes, so that people would get to see what I could do, but Nikki said that it might be better if I beat her quick. She wanted me to make the biggest impact possible with my debut, and I owe her a lot for that. It worked out great, and I never looked back from there."

"It is kind of surprising," Steve said, taking the opportunity to speak as Ronda sipped from her glass of water. "Considering how fast you got pushed, and then having the title put on you right away as well, I'd imagine the other women would be pissed off about it."

"Oh, some of them were," Ronda said, laughing. "I mean, I guess they had a point about me not going through NXT or whatever, but that was hardly my fault. I don't give a fuck what people say about me anyway. I was there to do a job, and I did it."

"You sure did," Steve grinned. "They had Nikki come out there and start talking about how she'd beaten everyone on the roster or something, right?"

"Right," Ronda nodded.

"Then your music hit, Seth's music, because everyone knew you guys were together by that point, and the place went fucking crazy. You walked out on the stage, and I remember thinking that WWE had found someone special. Not many people can generate that kind of reaction, let alone just by walking out onto the stage."

"Thanks, Steve," Ronda smiled, looking a little embarrassed. "That means a lot coming from you. That whole segment was only a few minutes long, but I'll never forget it. The Raw after Wrestlemania always has a predominantly British, and they were all going crazy for me. It gave me goosebumps. Actually, it was hard not to smile, which was something I definitely couldn't do, needing to stay in character."

"It was almost straight away that WWE started putting Ronda Rousey merch out," Steve said, moving on to the next topic. "I'm told you had a friend of yours design your first shirt?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly in uncertainty.

Ronda nodded. "Yeah, that's right. It had an awesome leopardess design on the front. Maggie, my friend, designed that shirt for me. I met Maggie in a restaurant one night, not long after I signed with WWE. She was a big fan of WWE, and she was blown away to get to meet Seth, Roman and Dean. She had some really tough times earlier in her life, and the courage that she showed in dealing with them was, and is, a huge inspiration to me. Actually, Maggie designed these wristbands, too. She's an amazing artist and designer. She's started to make good money from her design work. You can find a link to her website on the front page of mine, go check it out."

"Cheap plug," Steve laughed.

"Cheap and shameless," Ronda admitted, also laughing. "Maggie's awesome, though. We've been house sharing for a couple months now, actually. She's such good fun to be around. We have some fucking great laughs."

"I'm sure it surprises a lot of people to know that you house share with someone who used to be a fan of yours. I mean, you're one of the most recognisable women on the planet right now, and you've just finished filming a movie, yet until quite recently you still lived in a rented room in a house that you shared with two guys, right?"

Ronda shrugged. "I guess it might surprise people, but it shouldn't. I'm not better than other people, Steve. I fucking hate that kind of bullshit. I'm Ronda Rousey. I'm the same person I was just a few years ago when I was living in my car. Having money is nice, but it doesn't define me, and I try not to let it change my lifestyle. I only moved to this new house for security reasons, and I asked Maggie to move in with me because I didn't want to live by myself."

The sceptic in Steve wanted to doubt what Ronda had said, but there was nothing in her demeanour to suggest that she was not being honest. "That's very admirable, Ronda. A lot of people couldn't stay as well grounded as that, especially with how quickly your life has changed."

"I don't wear this thing for a stupid gimmick," Ronda said, bristling a little as she held up her right wrist which wore the wristband. She appeared to have misunderstood Steve slightly, wrongly thinking that there was an element of sarcasm in his comment. "I'm where I am now in life because people have supported me, and I don't forget that, okay? Not ever. Yes, I've busted my own ass to get to where I am, but I still owe my success to firstly WWE's fans, and now to a whole lot more people as well."

"I get what you're saying," Steve said calmly, hoping to also calm Ronda down and get back on track. The next part of the interview was going to be tough enough as it was, without Ronda being pissed off. "So you won the Divas title the night after Wrestlemania, and the fans went wild for it. You've talked about how great you felt that night, but then things changed. It was that night that Daniel Bryan was killed."

"Yeah," Ronda said, noticeably speaking more quietly than she had a moment before. "That was, I don't know, man."

"You spoke to Gavin Russell, the guy who shot Daniel, didn't you?" Steve nudged gently.

"Yeah," Ronda confirmed, looking down at the table rather than meeting Steve's eyes. "I looked him right in the eye. He was as close to me as you are to me now. He was wearing a WWE T-shirt, the same as a lot of the backstage crew. I thought that's who he was, just a crew member. He asked me where Daniel's locker room was, and I told him. I felt so fucking guilty about that afterwards, but Brie was so kind to me. She made me believe that she didn't blame me at all for what happened, and neither would Daniel. That little bastard would have seen Daniel's name on the locker room door if hadn't been there, so nothing would have been any different. Even so, I think about that night a lot. I didn't get the chance to know Daniel well, but seeing how much it upset everyone else told me how nice a guy he was, and how much everyone loved him."

"Daniel really was one hell of a guy," Steve agreed, and then left a slight pause. He knew that although the subject matter was unpleasant, he had to continue on. "You spoke to Russell in the hallway, what happened next?"

Ronda continued to look down at the table, and now started to pick at one of her finger nails. "I went into Nikki and Brie's locker room. I'd hit Nikki square in the mouth with my clothesline during the match, and she'd got one hell of a fat lip coming up. I went in to check on her, and to apologise. Nikki was fine. We chatted for a minute or so and I went to head back to my locker room - mine and Seth's locker room. I think he was wanting to take off. I'd gotten about half way back down the hallway when I heard a gunshot, and then another quickly afterwards. Gunshots were the only thing that sound could have been."

Ronda paused for a moment and swallowed hard before continuing. "I knew what had happened. I don't know how, I just did. I didn't want to walk towards Daniel's locker room, but I found myself doing it anyway. John Cena came in the opposite direction, and he was closer to Daniel's room. John walked into there and I heard him start yelling for help, or whatever. He was yelling. I was still walking down towards the room, but John saw me and walked towards me. He stood in my way so that I couldn't get down there. He didn't want me to see that… what was in that room."

Again Ronda paused, and although she was looking down at the table it was obvious from her voice that she had started to cry. "I remember asking him 'Daniel?' and he shook his head and said 'No.' I knew that Daniel was dead."

Wiping at her eyes, Ronda looked up at Steve. "Can we take a fucking break or something?"

"I think that's a good idea," Steve said, nodding his head to convey the order to the producer.


	3. Chapter 3

"Welcome back to the Stone Cold Podcast Live," Steve smiled at the camera when the show returned from commercial. "Ronda, how about we move on to the next subject?"

"Good idea," Ronda said with a hint of a smile. During the break she had composed herself, and now looked ready to answer more questions.

"Alright," Steve proceeded. "So, you had won the Divas title. WWE decided to get fully behind the Divas division at that point, and they brought up three or four of the girls from NXT to go into a program with you. I think we need to talk about two of those girls in particular. Let's start with May Devany. There's already one version of the story involving her and Seth Rollins which is out there in the public domain, but maybe you can tell us your version?"

Ronda sighed and took a few seconds before answering. When she spoke, her voice had a very reflective tone to it. "You know, for a long time, thinking about how my relationship with Seth ended made me really angry. But now? Now it makes me feel sad. I'd love to be able to sit here and call Seth a piece of shit. Well, he cheated, so he is a piece of shit. Anyone who cheats is a piece of shit, but what I'm trying to say is that I'd only be lying to myself if I said I was blameless. There was a lot of backstage politics and bullshit going on at that point in time, and he didn't like how I was handling it. Maybe he was right, maybe he wasn't, but I could have made a much better attempt to see things from his point of view, that's for sure. That's life, Steve. We all fuck up. Seth and I both fucked our relationship up, and that's a sad thing, for me at least."

Nodding in appreciation of Ronda's frank admissions, Steve prompted, "So you bear no grudge against May for what happened?"

"Against May?" Ronda paused for a second as if considering the question. "No. May was honest with me at the time about what happened, and I believed what she told me. The whole situation was a fucking mess to be honest. Seth had decided that it was over between us, but he hadn't told me that yet. He told May that he had told me, and they slept with each other. That's what happened. It was a real dick move on his part, and it hurt. It hurt a lot."

"Have you spoken to Seth since you left WWE?" Steve asked, shifting in his chair to get comfortable.

Ronda shook her head and mumbled, "No." She took a sip from her water again, which seemed to be a developing pattern whenever there was a tough subject on the table. "I speak to Roman, though. At the time Roman and Dean fought my corner, and they were both really pissed with Seth for doing what he did. For a while, they didn't get along with Seth, Roman especially. I haven't asked him much about it, but I think they're all getting along okay again now. Time is a healer, or whatever, I guess. I'm glad though, to be honest. Those guys were friends a long time before I showed up."

Steve had hoped that Ronda would be a little more confrontational, but he didn't detect anything that indicated she was being dishonest with her answer. "If you were to meet Seth somewhere, for argument's sake, what would you say to him?"

Ronda puffed out her cheeks as she thought for a moment. "I don't know, honestly. I'd hope we could sit down and talk, but I don't know."

Feeling like the conversation was falling a little flat, and that Ronda might be clamming up on him a bit, Steve decided to move on. "Okay. I'm sure there's someone that you definitely do have something to say to: Sarita Lopez. She's been very vocal and critical about you on several occasions. She's accused you of being a politician, and an actress. She's been open about the fact that she thinks that you've manipulated your popularity with WWE's fans to get to where you are now. In one interview, she said that Ronda Rousey doesn't give a shit about her fans, Ronda only does what's best for Ronda, and that is to keep up what she described as 'this win and lose together bullshit, with her stupid wristbands.'"

The expression on Ronda's face had changed as Steve spoke, and she now looked pissed off rather than sad as she had while talking about Seth. "Sarita Lopez. Yeah, I've got something to say to Sarita Lopez," she confirmed, getting more aggressive with each word. She then turned to look directly at the camera. "You talk a lot of shit, Sarita, you no talent bitch. I notice you never said any of those things to my face when I was at WWE. No, you wait until I leave and then start running your fucking mouth. Who the fuck are you to criticise anyone, huh? You got to be the Divas champion, and for what? What fucking talent do you have? You can't wrestle. You're a fucking joke in the ring. All you've got is a pair of fake tits stuck on the front of you, and you think that makes you something special? I'll tell you what it makes you; it makes you look fucking stupid, but then, that's what you are, obviously. I respect my fans, and I appreciate every bit of support I've ever gotten from them. You think I don't know that I'm where I am I in life because of them? I do, and I appreciate it. What I don't appreciate is ugly pieces of trash like you talking shit about me like you fucking know me and know how I think. The way I look at it is, one of two things needs to happen, Sarita. You need to either keep that hole in your face shut, or we can deal with things face to face. I know I'm not fucking afraid to do it. How about you?"

"Wow," Steve said, unable to stop himself smiling. "You're saying what? You want to fight Sarita Lopez?"

"I'll tell you what I'm saying," Ronda growled, turning back to Steve. "I've had UFC after my ass for months now. They're trying to get me to do a fight for them, even if it's just one fight. So what I'm saying is, Sarita Lopez, you've got a problem with me? Get your agent to call my agent and we'll work it out in the octagon. Don't worry though, Steve, I know that's not going to happen. Like I said, Sarita's just a no talent bitch with a big mouth."

Steve laughed and turned to the camera. "Dana White," he said, addressing the President of UFC. "Shut up and take my money."

"She'll probably just hide behind her WWE contract anyway," Ronda snorted derisively.

"Hashtag Rousey versus Lopez, guys," Steve grinned at the camera. "If you want to see it, make yourselves heard."

"I like that," Ronda laughed.

"Sarita's not your only detractor though," Steve said, moving on. "I did get some tweets this week from people who aren't fans of yours. They seemed to think that your matches in WWE were boring, and they wanted me to ask why you never put anyone over clean in a one on one match?"

"What kind of question is that?" Ronda demanded, narrowing her eyes at Steve. "You know how wrestling works. Pretty much everyone knows how wrestling works. I didn't write the creative. It wasn't my decision on whether anyone went over me clean or not. And my matches were boring? That's stupid bullshit, plain and simple. The Divas matches and segments were getting some of the highest ratings on the show while I was there."

"Well, that's certainly to the point," Steve said, taking a drink of his water. "You just mentioned creative, and you mentioned backstage politics before, as well as the fact that you always got along well with Hunter. What about Stephanie? Tell us about your relationship with her, if there was one."

Ronda leaned back in her chair and smiled. "Steph? We didn't get off to the best of starts, but we ended up getting along well. I saw Steph not too long ago at a charity function actually, and we chatted briefly."

"How do you mean, a bad start?" Steve cut in.

"I don't think Steph agreed with Hunter's decision to put me on the main roster right away. Maybe she had something with that? Who knows? Anyway, she didn't handle it well by taking it out on me, I think she would admit that. There was heat between us for a time, but one day I got worked up about something in the script and it was Steph who actually stepped in to calm me down. I appreciated that talk a lot, and it helped me a lot going forward. Hunter and Steph are good people. They got, and still get, a lot of hate over what happened when I left WWE, and to set the record straight, I'll say that they don't deserve it. If Hunter had gotten his way, I'd still be there, I'm sure about that."

"You've set us up nicely there, Ronda," Steve smiled, glancing over at the show's producer. The next subject was the main reason that Ronda was sitting opposite him. "Why don't we take a break, and when we come back we can go into what everyone's been waiting to hear about the most. That day. The day you parted ways with WWE, and the aftermath."

"Let's do it," Ronda agreed easily.

"We'll be right back," Steve said to the camera.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve Austin opened the final segment of the podcast following the commercial break. "Welcome back to the Stone Cold Podcast Live. Steve Austin and Ronda Rousey, back from our final commercial break. Ronda, just in case there's someone out there watching who was living under a rock seven months ago, I'm going to refresh a bit on what was going on before the day you parted ways with WWE."

"Sure." Ronda gestured for him to go ahead.

"Somehow, as things have a habit of doing in wrestling, the news leaked out that you were only signed to WWE for a year. A bit of a… no, a huge fuck up on WWE's part, in my opinion. Anyway, the news leaked out, and everyone knew that you were only signed for a year, which by this point actually meant a couple more months. All kinds of rumors started spreading like wildfire. There were people saying that they'd heard that WWE weren't going to offer you a new contract because you had issues with the McMahon family, with creative, all that shit. There were other people saying that they'd heard that WWE were panicking because you'd decided not to accept an offer that they'd already made, and that you were jumping ship to UFC. It got real crazy, and of the two rumors, everyone started believing the one about WWE not offering you a contract. Then that campaign started up on Twitter; Ronda leaves we riot. Hashtag RLWR. You totally kept your silence on it, until you went to that baseball game and someone put that picture on Instagram."

"Yeah," Ronda said quietly, clearly thinking back to what Steve was describing. "That was a rough thing. It wasn't nice."

"Tell us a bit about it, before I go on," Steve encouraged.

Ronda made a hand gesture that seemed to indicate that she was struggling for what to say and would have rather not been asked to talk about it. "Uh, well, I was at the game with Maggie and a couple other friends, and a fan came up to me, a teenage girl. I was sitting in the seat at the end of the row, by the steps. I thought she was going to ask me for a picture or something. I'm always happy to do that kind of thing for people, but this girl just asks me 'Ronda, are you going to leave?', meaning WWE. I was honest with her and said that I didn't know, and she burst into tears. It was awful, and I totally didn't see it coming. I didn't know what to say really, so I hugged her, but she just kept crying even worse and begging me not to go. Whoever it was, someone a couple rows in front of us, took a picture of that scene, me hugging a fan who was sobbing her heart out onto my chest, and put it on Instagram. They wrote underneath it 'Ronda Rousey just told this girl that she's leaving WWE', which of course was bullshit. I said no such thing."

"Right," Steve said, nodding as he remembered what Ronda was describing. "That picture and that caption, what's that thing people say? It broke the fucking internet."

"Yeah, it was fucking crazy," Ronda agreed, shaking her head as if the reaction was still hard to believe. "I didn't check Twitter or anything all night. I just calmed that girl down and carried on watching the game after she left. We got in the car to head home and Maggie went on Twitter on her phone and she was like 'You're the number one trend in the world, girl.' I had no idea why, but obviously I soon found out, and I had to tweet something."

As Ronda paused for a drink of water, Steve took over. "You tweeted that nothing had been decided, and that you were actually meeting with WWE the following week to discuss your future. You said what day it was going to be too."

"I did," Ronda confirmed, setting her empty glass back on the table. "It was a Wednesday. I'd been called to Stamford, to the office."

"When the day came, it was crazy," Steve said, grinning at the memory. "I can't remember anything like it. It seemed like everyone in the fucking world, certainly everyone in the wrestling community, was waiting on the announcement that you'd signed a new deal. People were talking about who you were going to wrestle next, who you were going to wrestle at Wrestlemania, all sorts of shit. By that point, opinion had totally changed. Everyone thought you were staying. So, tell us what happened."

Ronda took a deep breath and shifted in her chair to get comfortable. "Okay. Well, the first surprise I got was that when I walked in there, I found out that I wasn't meeting with Hunter, which was what I'd expected. I was meeting with Vince McMahon. I'd barely ever met the guy before, as Hunter was always the guy in charge at the events by the time I started wrestling. I went into the meeting thinking it was a little strange, but we had coffee brought in and all that bullshit. Then we got down to business. Much like you, Steve, I'm not one to fuck around with words, so I asked Vince what he was offering me. He replied that he had taken the decision that WWE would not be offering me a new contract because they had serious concerns about my attitude to authority, to creative and to my colleagues."

"Vince said that he had decided?" Steve cut in, wanting the point clarified as he leaned forward, listening intently along with everyone who was watching the podcast.

"He had decided," Ronda confirmed. "He was still chairman. I'm guessing, but I think he went over Hunter's head. As I said earlier, I think Hunter wanted me to sign a new contract."

"So what did you say to Vince?" Steve asked.

"I didn't know what to say for a minute. I was shocked. I mean, I admit I was hardly a model employee, but I wasn't anything like as bad as he tried to make out. I think that for whatever reason, Vince just didn't like me. I think he didn't like me or the fact that Hunter was now running the company. I was very much Hunter's signing rather than Vince's, and I was a success. I think making the decision not to offer me a contract was Vince trying to show that he still had some balls, or that his dick still worked, whatever. I think it was an ego thing is what I'm saying."

"So what did you say?" Steve repeated, gently urging Ronda on.

"Not much, really. I wasn't going to plead with the old bastard. I will say this though, for anyone who doubts what my intentions were, I went into that building intending to sign whatever I was offered. I wanted to stay. I told Vince that I wanted to stay, but he said that it wasn't an option, that the decision had been made. I thought about asking to see Hunter, but I knew that I'd be wasting my time. Then the thought hit me that I wouldn't feel right working for WWE knowing how Vince felt about me, and knowing that my contract was going to expire and I'd be let go like I was of no significance. I've got more pride than that, and I told Vince as much. We talked about it for a few minutes, and we worked out a deal for WWE to pay me a certain amount, and I would be released from my contract that day."

Ronda paused for a moment, and Steve was about to ask another question, but she continued, "I finished my coffee, Vince offered his hand, and I shook it. Then do you know what he said to me? He said 'You can learn from this, Ronda.' I remember thinking how patronising that was."

Ronda turned to look at the camera. "Well, I learned from it, Vince. How about you?"

Steve tried to get Ronda back on track. "Was it right when you left the office that you made the Instagram post?"

"Pretty much," Ronda nodded. "I sat in my car for a few minutes, and I was like 'What the fuck just happened?' I'd gone in there to sign a new contract, and I came out unemployed. It was fucking insane. Then I realised that the fans were waiting to hear what had happened. That moment was bad. I had such a special connection with the fans, and now I knew that I wouldn't be wrestling in front of them again. It was over, as far as I was concerned. I thought that Ronda Rousey would soon be forgotten about. It really hurt, and I sat and cried for a minute. That's when the quote popped into my head. God knows why, but it did. I decided it was perfect, so I found an image of it and put it on Instagram."

"Can you remind us of the quote?" Steve asked, unsure of the exact wording off the top of his head, wishing that he had written it down on something before the show.

Ronda obliged him. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

"That's the one," Steve said. "Then underneath, in the caption, you revealed what happened in the meeting."

"Yeah. I wrote that Vince McMahon had personally taken the decision that I wouldn't be offered a new contract, and that after some discussion, we had agreed that I would be released with immediate effect. Then I finished with how I felt; devastated." Ronda looked down at the table and shook her head, as if the memory was still painful for her.

Steve took over. "When that post went live, I don't think there's been a reaction like it on social media before. Certainly not one that I can think of. Everyone went crazy, at least that's how it seemed. All sorts of stuff started trending. 'Thank you Ronda,' 'Bring back Ronda.' They were the positive ones, but there were others aimed at WWE. 'Cancel WWE Network' was the first one, then 'Boycott Raw,' 'Boycott Survivor Series,' and then 'McMahon out!' That was the killer one. Well, that one and the one about cancelling the network, because people were actually doing it.

Ronda held up her right wrist, the one with the wristband on it. "Yeah. What Vince McMahon underestimated, and in a way I underestimated, was this. We win and lose together. Me and the people. Vince McMahon didn't just shit on Ronda Rousey that day, he shit on millions of people, and those people didn't fucking stand for being shit on. They all wanted me to be given a new contract, yet Vince chose not to do it."

"They sure didn't stand for it," Steve agreed. "WWE's network subscriptions dropped like a fucking stone. The next week's Raw viewing figures were in the toilet, and nearly a week after you'd left, 'McMahon out!' was still trending from time to time. It was like a chain reaction or some shit, feeding on itself. WWE's stock prices started tanking because of the public backlash, and they had to do something. They couldn't give the fans one of the things that they wanted, which was you, because you obviously wouldn't have accepted an offer in those circumstances, but they could give them the other. They could give them Vince McMahon being asked to step down as Chairman, and that's what they had to do."

"That's about right," Ronda agreed, with no real emotion. "I'm not here to crow about it. Vince fucked up big time, and it cost him. WWE ended up being fine, of course, as it should be. People started subscribing to the network again, and their views went back up. Survivor Series didn't get boycotted, and that's all good. It wouldn't be fair on the guys who go out there night after night, busting their asses, to have their pay or jobs cut just because I got released. I appreciate the support that everyone continues to show, I really do, but please, don't chant my name throughout the Divas matches. It's not fair on the girls in the ring. Well, you can chant it at Sarita Lopez if you want, if you're still awake," she added, only half as a joke.

Steve could see the producer panicking that the show had already gone on longer than it should have. "We're running low on time, Ronda, but there's one more question that needs to be answered. Will we ever see you in WWE again?"

"I don't know," Ronda answered with a shrug. "You'd have to ask Hunter about that. He runs the place, not me. I never wanted to leave to start with."

"So you're definitely not ruling it out?" Steve asked, knowing that he had just hit his headline.

"Absolutely not. Never say never. Hunter's got my number and my agent's number is not hard to find."

Steve smiled broadly. "Ronda, I want to thank you for coming on. It's been fucking awesome chatting with you."

"No, thank you, Steve," Ronda smiled back. "I've really enjoyed it."

With that, Steve and Ronda shook hands and Steve turned to the camera to thank the viewers for watching and to plug the next week's podcast.

END


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